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il 

ROSE COLOTOD CELEKY" 



No. 1. 






HOW TO CULTIVATE AND PEESERVB 

CELERY. 

BY THEOPHILUS POESSLE, 

OF THE DELAVAN HOUSE, ALBANY, N. T. 

EDITED, WITH A PREFACE, 
BY HEKRY S. OLCOTT. 
f , 




ALBANY : 

THEOPHILUS ROESSLE, DELAYAN HOUSE. 

NEW YORK : C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & COMPANY. 

AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 

1860. 



Eutered according to act of Congress, in the year 18G0, 

BY THEOPHILUS ROESSLE, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Northern District of New York. 



MONSELL & ROWLAXD, PRINTERS, 
AI-BANY. 






^^^. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Preface, iii 

Summer Celery, 27 

Varieties, 29 

Preparing the hot-beds, - - - 31 

Watering the beds, - - - 35 

Airing the plants, - - - - 38 

Hoeing the beds, - - - - 42 

Transplanting, 43 

Preparing the trenches, - - - 48 

Hoeing, 53 

Banking, - - - - - 58 

Digging the crop, - - - - 6G 

Preparing for use, - - - - G7 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Winter Celery, - - - - - 71 

Preparing the ground, - - - 73 

Sowing and hoeing, - - - - 76 

How and when to l)nry, . - _ 79 

Covering for the winter, - - - 85 

Digging for use, - - - - 90 

Other Hand-Books, - - - - 95 

Potatoes, 97 

Corn, - 98 

CauMowers, ----- 99 

Cabbage, 99 

Turnips, - - - - - 100 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 
Rose-Colored Celery, - - . . Front. 

White Celery, 27 

Diseased Celery, - - - . §4 

Illustrations of Treatment, - . . 70 

Fig. 1, Celery in Trenches. 

2, Size at First Hoeing. 

3, First Banking. 

4, Slope of Hill. 

5, Buried for Winter. 

6, Second Banking. 



PREFACE. 



PREFACE. 



In every business, trade and profession, 
we see some men, who, with no better 
chances than their neighbors, somehow 
thrive and grow rich ; while others fail. 
The unfortunate ones, unconscious of the 
real causes of their disappointment, think 
themselves the victims of malign influ- 
ences, and bewail their bad luck. The 
sober sense of the world, however, judging 
impartially in the case, decides that the 
successful man has conquered his fortune 
by being industrious, economical, observ- 
ing ; by a straight forward and persistent 



IV PREFACE. 

policy, and by using foresight and good 
judgment. 

True as this is in all occupations, there 
is none, perhaps, to which the rule will 
apply with more certainty than that of 
market-gardening. Almost every vegeta- 
ble which we use has been produced, by 
skill and care, from an inferior, wild- 
growing plant, and there is a constant 
tendency to revert or fall back to that ori- 
ginal condition ; a result which we prevent 
only by the diligent use of skillful treat- 
ment. Thus it is with the potato, the 
tomato, asparagus, rhubarb, celery; and 
when Ave come to fruits, we find the same 
rule applying to the apple, peach, plum, 
pear, and others. The regular processes 
of nature have been changed by man for 
his own purpose, and plants, trees, and 



PREFACE. V 

even animals have been forced to develop 
to excess the parts most suitable for 
human food, at the expense of those the 
least valuable. Thus the apple and peach, 
which in their original wild state aimed 
only to produce their seed, have by art been 
made to surround that seed with a mass 
of pulp, which is made greater in quantity, 
and more luscious in flavor, according to 
the treatment we bestow upon the trees. 
Asparagus, in its natural state a sea-side 
grass, spindling in size and useless for 
food, has when transplanted into the gar- 
den and carefully cultivated been made 
to produce thick, tender, succulent stalks, 
and is now one of our most delicious 
vegetables. So with celery. In its wild 
state, in which it is found in ditches 
throughout Europe, it is rank, coarse, and 



VI PREFACE. 

even poisonous, but by cultivation it 
becomes crisp, sweet, juicy, and of an 
agreeable flavor. Turning to the animal 
kingdom, we see our domestic cow, which 
otherwise would secrete only enough milk 
to suckle her young and, this accomplished, 
go dry the rest of the year, made by the 
art of man to yield for her owner ten, 
twenty, and sometimes even more quarts 
of milk daily. And in the matter of beef 
production, we see how the intelligent 
labors of Colling, Bates, Quartly, Turner, 
and their compeers, have resulted in the 
production of animals which convert their 
food almost entirely into the most valua- 
ble portions of meat. 

Again, we must remember that many 
of our common vegetables are natives of 
tropical or very warm climates ; in which 



PREFACE. Vll 

they run through all the stages of growth 
unchecked by frost or cold, and are planted 
by nature in the very soils which are best 
adapted to produce their fruit in greatest 
luxuriance. From these favorable climes 
they have been brought to struggle with 
our changeful seasons, and are often 
planted on soils in every way unsuited to 
them. If, therefore, we expect them to 
not only do as well but much better than 
they did at home, it is but fair to suppose 
that we must give them extraordinary 
attention, and by our vigilance avert the 
ill effects of sudden alterations of tem- 
perature. 

The intelligent reader will understand, 
from these illustrations, that if we would 
control the laws of nature to work for our 
profit we must exercise a diligence and skill 



Vlll PREFACE. 

and give an attention to minor details, 
more unremitting as the desired result is 
of importance to us, and in contravention 
to the ordinary course of Nature. The 
skillful gardener not only maintains but 
continually improves the quality of his 
vegetables, and by a close study of the 
laws of their growth, is enabled to origin- 
ate, or create, new and better varieties. 

It needs but a cursor}^ glance at the 
nature of celery to make us see why it has 
been so difficult a matter to raise it of the 
best quality, and keep it sound as long as 
we choose to send it to market. Sow the 
seed and leave it to itself and the plant will 
grow rank, with abundance of leaves, its 
stalks all green, except a little portion at 
the heart, and in due season it produces 
its seed abundantly. But we want its 



PREFACE. XX 

stalks to blanch and become crisp, and 
attain as great a length as possible. So 
we transplant it when a few inches high, 
and when the stalks have grown awhile 
we surround them with earth. The plant 
thus hemmed in, and having no access to 
the sunlight except at the top, pushes 
upward, as a man confined in a narrow 
tube would struggle upward to get free, 
and the juices not being acted upon by 
sunlight, the chlorophyll, or green color- 
ing matter, is not elaborated, and the 
stalks grow white. Does any one suppose 
that when a plant is thus surrounded with 
earth it is as little liable to disease, as 
when exposed to the air in its natural 
state ? The stalk is composed of a fragile 
cellular structure which abounds with 

watery juice, in which, besides other in- 
2 



PREFACE. 



gredients tliere is a small proportion of 
sugar in solution. So long as a certain 
temperature is maintained, with only a 
given density of soil, air and heat will be 
supplied to the stalks in such proportion 
that the plant remains in health, and its 
growth is unimpeded. In this case the 
only change from a state of Nature is that 
the green coloring matter is not elabo- 
rated, and the stalk grows white. But 
once pass this point and what is the re- 
sult ? Shut out from air and liglit, sodden 
with earthy water in which it is forced 
to grow, the stalk becomes unhealthy, its 
sugar changes to acid, tlie woody tissues 
are burned or rusted, decay and then 
decomposition ensues. In other words, 
there is a certain definite quantity of air 
and light required by a celery plant to 



PREFACE. XI 

preserve a state of health, the delicate 
tissues of its stalk will withstand only a 
limited amount of maltreatment, and the 
exact processes of culture which we must 
pursue to secure a good crop of Celery and 
keep it afterwards,, can only be learnt by 
long experience in the business. 

We frequently see men engage in the 
business of vegetable growing without the 
slightest intelligent idea of the nature of 
plants, without patience and industrious 
habits, and with so little common sense 
as to expect large and good crops without 
manure or high culture. These, and their 
number is verv o'reat. are the ones who 
fail, and bewail their luck, and grow poor 
and poorer, and finally sink to the condi- 
tion of hired laborers for their more clever 
neighbors. These are the men who find 



XU PREFACE. 

their soils " not suited to cauliflowers," so 
little in fact, that out of every thousand 
plants they get a bare half dozen of mark- 
etable heads. If they attempt a crop of 
onions, they somehow get nothing but 
scullions. Their turnips and radishes get 
pithy and worthless. Their cabbages will 
not head. Their beets, parsnips, and car- 
rots, grow spindling roots, and they pour 
upon the heads of their seedsmen every 
invective and malediction. It is in vain 
that they are told that the seed from the 
same bag has produced splendid crops in 
a number of instances ; they know that 
the seedsman is lying, or at any rate that 
some extraordinarily favorable circum- 
stances must have attended the other 
cultivators. If they set out an orchard, 
their trees grow poorer than those of other 



PREFACE. xiii 

men, and when they sliould rejoice in a 
crop, get nothing but faggot wood. The 
same "bad luck" enters their stables and 
styes, in the form of disease and accident 
to their occupants. 

Such a man is 7iot Mr. Theophilus 
KoESSLE, the author of this little pamphlet ; 
as a sketch of his personal experience will 
abundantly show* 

Born near Stuttgardt, in the Kingdom 
of Wirtemberg, and the son of a market- 
gardener and vigneron, he learnt the 
habits and cultivation of plants from his 
very boyhood. The plow, spade, lioe and 
pruning-knife were made familiar to him 
in turn, as he became large enough to be 
of service on the farm ; and, like all the 
children in that kingdom, he got a good 
education. In 1825, he came to this 



Xiv PREFACE. 

country a mere stripling. With another 
lad he found his way to Rochester, but at 
Utica the baggage of both was lost, and 
they were left penniless in a land of 
strangers. The companion sickened and 
died in Rochester, and young Roessle, 
dispirited and careworn, painfully trudged 
back on loot to Utica, in the bare hope of 
recovering his lost trunk. It was a boot- 
less errand, however, and so he turned 
his face toward Albany again. For many 
a weary day he walked in his worn shoes, 
without a change of raiment to his back, 
or a penny in his pocket, a strange lad in 
a country where he could not make his 
commonest wants understood except by 
signs. He arrived at length, foot-sore 
and weary, at the last toll-gate on the 
Schenectady turnpike, and when he was 



PREFACE. XV 

speculating on his chances for a breakfast, 
a farmer drove his team up to the tavern 
door, and beckoning the young lad to him 
got him to hold the horses while he went 
in to his breakfast. For this service he 
gave Roessle a sixpence, and that money 
was the corner-stone of a fortune. 

Arrived in Albany, he met a little girl 
selling matches, and enquiring of her for 
her father, was led to a dirty room in a 
dirty street, where the girl's father, an old 
Swiss, the wife, and several children slept 
on straws Roessle obtained the privilege 
of a night's lodging, and the next morning, 
finding that a few inches of snow had fallen 
through the night, he borrowed a shovel 
of the old man and went out to earn some 
money. He made a dollar and a half 
that dav; and the next earned a like 



XVI PREFACE. 

sum by sawing, splitting, and piling some 
fire- wood. He then got a job of sawing a 
dozen cords for an old Dutch Dominie, 
and while at this work the attention of 
old Dr. Peter Wendell being attracted to 
the diligence of the lad, a bargain was 
struck by which Koessle was to have his 
board, two suits of clothes, and forty 
dollars in cash per annum, in return 
for sweeping out the Doctor's office, and 
riding his rounds with him. He was thus 
employed nearly four years, but then went 
out to a farm on the Western Turnpike, 
which he leased for a term of years from 
his employer. He now commenced his 
market-gardening on a small scale, feeling 
his way and using his little capital to the 
best advantage. An English landscape- 
gardener, named Sears, took board with 



PREFACE. Xvii 

him, and Koessle employed the op- 
portunity afforded by the long winter 
evenings to learn as much of Sears' s 
beautiful profession as he could. In 
spring he was employed to lay out the 
place of Mr. John Prentice, and the work 
was so well done that a number of lucra- 
tive jobs were in succession offered to and 
executed by him. Joining the two trades 
together, working hard early and late, and 
living with the strictest frugality, Koessle 
accumulated property by slow degrees and 
bettered his circumstances. The quality 
of his vegetables became at last so well 
known, that his marketing business in- 
creased until he was forced to abandon 
landscape-gardening altogether. 

Celery was his heaviest crop, for he not 
only retailed, and jobbed it out in Albany, 



XVlll PREFACE. 

but sold it at wholesale to other gardeners, 
and supplied Washington and Fulton mar- 
kets in New York, the Eiver boats, Sara- 
toga hotels, the Catskill Mountain House, 
and the city of Schenectady. From 1835 to 
1840 he sold an average of one thousand 
bunches a day. As he says himself, he could 
raise perhaps as fine a crop of celery then 
as he has been able to during the past few 
years, but as he could never succeed in 
keeping it over winter, he was no better 
off than his neighbors. It was only after 
failures, losses, and disappointments, that 
he discovered the simple expedients de- 
tailed in this little work; and he estimates 
that it has cost him between nine and 
ten thousand dollars to acquire the 
knowledge which the reader gets in the 
succeeding pages for an hundred cents. 



PREFACE. XIX 

It is only witliin ten years that he 
has had partial, and within four years 
absolute, success in keeping celery sound 
and good throughout the winter and even 
as late as the month of May. A record 
of the successive failures which he has 
had, w^ould doubtless cover the separate 
experiences of a score of celery growers ; 
and if only a portion of them be given at 
this time, it is for the reason that it does 
not matter so much what he has gone 
through, as that he now succeeds, and can 
tell his readers how to do likewise. 

Mr. Roessle's gardening was first on 
seven acres, but as his sales increased he 
leased adjoining places, and got up suc- 
cessively to fifty, and finally one hundred 
and sixteen acres. For two acres of 
ground which he wished to use for celery 



XX PREFACE. 

growing, he paid an annual rent of fifty dol- 
lars per acre — and made money at even that 
price. He usually raised twenty-five to 
thirty acres of potatoes, and sometimes 
fifty ; five of radishes, five or six of peas, 
fifty to sixty thousand heads of celery, and 
all the ordinary vegetables in various quan- 
tities. In 1836 he spent a winter at his 
home in Stuttgardt, and in so doing spent 
all his money, except a bare hundred 
dollars with which he got back to Albany. 
His credit was so good that he had no 
trouble to get what land he needed, and 
so he went to work again in good earnest. 
That year there was a severe drouth in 
Southern New York, and vegetables were 
very scarce and very dear in market. 
Koessle, with characteristic shrewdness, 
bought up all the crops about him in 



PREFACE. XXI 

advance, and from their sale and that of 
his own produce, realized a clear profit of 
$2,000. This made him again a free man, 
and he has kept so ever since. 

It has already been stated that his 
present knowledge has been obtained after 
many unfortunate failures. As a case in 
point, he mentions the fact that he once 
hired the cellars of three large grain ware- 
houses, at a rent of about $200, with a 
view to storing his celery throughout 
winter. He carefully carried the plants 
a full mile from his farm to the cellars, 
carted in his dirt, and counted upon his 
prospective profits to meet certain heavy 
expenses. Alas for his calculation! the 
whole crop, w^hich should have netted him 
over $2,000, was a dead loss, and he had 
to cart his dirt "to the place whence it 



XXll PREFACE. 

came ; " thus not only losing his crop 
outright, but being forced to ''throw good 
money after bad," in cleaning out the 
cellars, which had done all the damage. 

Another time he built an outdoor cellar, 
or pit, and buried in it 35,000 bunches, 
laying them down and overlapping the 
tops; the whole mass rotted in less than 
three weeks. Again he put some 12,000 
bunches into drills on the south side of a 
fence, covering each drill with a double- 
pitch roof of boards; but to no avail, for 
his crop was not saved. And so by 
degrees he went on, learning one tiling 
one season, another the next, and at last 
learning the whole secret of celery grow- 
ing, as set forth in these pages. Last 
year Mr. Eoessle had a crop so line that 
a single head weighed six and a half 



PREFACE. XXlll 

pounds, the stalks four feet in length, 
three feet of which was white and to use 
the expression which I recently heard, 
'' as clear as a lily." The quality seems to 
have been appreciated by the guests of 
the Dela\ an House, for twelve thousand 
heads have been eaten at its tables within 
the past ninety days. It is to be found 
on the table, I am told, from July until 
the following May, and of almost uniform 
quality throughout. 

As will be seen in another place, Mr. 
Roessle has yielded to repeated solicita- 
tions, and announces several pamphlets 
to follow the present one. It is intended 
to make a series, each pamphlet devoted 
to some special vegetable, and to that 
alone, giving not so much chemical theories 



XXIV PREFACE. 

or useless speculations, as the plain un- 
varnished description of his own prac- 
tical experience. To be sure he has his 
own theory as to the cause of potato-rot, 
and as to the action of manures, or the 
growth of plants ; and while he may in 
stating his views run counter to the popu- 
lar notions of the day, he hopes the public 
will not, in combating the shadows he 
throws, lose sight of the important sub- 
stance contained in his experiments. 

So far as the Editor is personally con- 
cerned, he wishes it understood that his 
office is to prepare the matter for the 
press, not to construct or correct the 
theories of the author ; and he hopes to 
have the good taste to forbear from mar- 
ring, by interlineations or foot-notes, the 



PREFACE. XXV 

force of those peculiar views, even though 
they might in some instances widely 
differ from his own. 

The personal experience of Mr. Roessle 
has been sketched at some length for two 
reasons. First: He is a successful man, 
who first made enough money at market- 
gardening to warrant his leasing a large 
hotel, and since then has built up a for- 
tune. Second : Because we have already 
had too many agricultural books written, 
and journals edited, by men of little or no 
practical experience, who are thus unsafe 
preceptors for the confiding reader. When 
we know that this book on celery con- 
denses into its score or two of pages the 
practical experience of twenty- five years, 
we are compelled to listen respectfully to 
the directions which it gives for our own 



XXVI PREFACE. 

practice ; and when we give our own gar- 
dener orders to treat the celery after a 
given fashion at a given stage of growth, 
we are able to prophecy what results will 
follow, by turning over a few more leaves 
of our little manual and reading what its 
experienced author says. 

The other hand-books of this series will 
appear as rapidly as circumstances may 

permit. 

H. S. 0. 

New York, March, 1860. 










Joint 



WHITE 



SUMMER CELERY. 



SUMMER CELERY. 



VAEIETIES. 



After an experience of many years, with 
a great number of varieties of celery, I 
have narrowed my list to the following 
few kinds which I recommend as most 
profitable for general cultivation : 

No. 1. Early White Solid. 

No. 2. Joint do 

No. 3. New Silver Leaf. 

No. 4. Red Solid, or Rose-colored. 

No. 5. Celeriac — or Turnip-rooted. 

The varieties 1, 2, and 4 are best. I 
recommend number 1 for an early, and 



30 CELERY. 

number 2 for the main crop. There are 
doubtless other kinds which under peculiar 
circumstances are valuable, but none I 
think which in every respect are so 
valuable, both to the market-gardener 
and the private cultivator, as those above 
mentioned. 



CELERY. 31 



PREPARING THE HOT-BEDS. 



The hot-beds should be made ready for 
the reception of the seed as early as the 
first day of March, in this latitude. I do 
not propose to enter into the details of their 
construction, further than to say that 
when finished with the manure, a depth 
of about twelve inches of fine soil should 
be added, the surface leveled, the sashes 
closed, and after being covered with straw 
mats, the bed should thus remain for ten 
days before a particle of seed is sown. The 
object of this plan is to raise a full crop of 
weeds, which at the expiration of the ten 
days may be all destroyed, and the soil be 
thus left clean for the crop of plants. Those 



32 CELERY. 

who neglect this precaution suffer the pe- 
nalty. Their tender, slow growing, young 
celery plants are choked with the more 
vigorous weeds ; or the weeds are removed 
at the cost of great labor and expense. 

The bed being now thoroughly cleansed 
of weeds, it should be dug over and raked, 
and a slope given to the surface corre- 
sponding to that of the glass above. To 
make drills for the seed, take a slat three 
inches wide and of the desired length, and 
press it edgewise into the soil to the 
depth of an inch ; making the depth 
uniform throughout. Thus the seed being 
deposited at an equal depth the i)lants 
w^ill come up simultaneously, and be of 
one hight. The drills should be six inches 
apart. The old plan, it will be recollected, 
is to make the drills with a small marker, 



CELERY. 33 

the drawing of which through the ground 
makes a bottom of unequal depth ; and 
some seed having two inches, others only 
a half inch of soil over them, the appear- 
ance of the sprouts above ground is very 
various. By the plan which I recommend, 
the bottom of the drill is not only level 
but compact, and the moisture there 
retained, not only makes the seeds sprout 
sooner, but the plants more healthy. I 
need scarcely enlarge upon the importance 
of giving to plants of any kind a good 
healthy organism at their very start in 
life. For surely no intelligent man need 
be told that if the powers of our plant 
be enfeebled w^hen they should be most 
vigorous the damage is irreparable. The 
delicate cells which should rapidly elabor- 
ate its food are imperfectly formed, and 
5 



34: CELERY. 

feeble, and the roots, few in number and 
dwarfed in size, are unable to absorb from 
the soil food sufficient for a vigorous 
growth. It is as if we ruined the consti- 
tution of a child and expected him to 
develop into a healthy man. All the 
efforts, therefore, of the gardener should 
be directed to giving his plants a sound 
organism during the first stages of its 
growth. 

By leaving the hot-bed unsown for ten 
days we gain an advantage beyond the 
eradication of weeds, in such a settling of 
the bed that when the seed is sown the 
surface does not crack and become uneven. 



CELERY. 35 



WATERING THE BEDS. 



This should be done at noon, and only 
cold water should be used. As soon as one 
bed is watered close it up tight, and then 
proceed to another, and so on in succes- 
sion. By thus doing the moisture in the 
bed will be evaporated by the sun's rays, 
and deposit on the glass in the form of a 
dew, thereby not only forming an agree- 
able shade to the plants, but giving to 
them by degrees a shower of dew-drops as 
they most need it. By this means I 
escape the great loss of having my plants 
"damp-off" at the root; a disaster which 
too often overtakes those who pursue the 
old method. It would be difficult, I fancy, 



36 CELERY. 

to fairly estimate tlie number of celery 
plants thus lost every year, but it must 
be set down at many millions. Since 
using my plan I find that my plants make 
as much growth in one day as I formerly 
could get in six, and the risk is almost 
nothing. Why the moisture thus con- 
denses may be easily explained, and a 
single illustration will suffice to make my 
meaning plain. If we pour ice-water into 
a tumbler, in a room the temperature of 
Avhich is 70 deg. Fahr., beads of moisture 
will at once collect on the outside of the 
glass. This moisture has of course not 
oozed through the glass, but been forced 
to separate from the layers of atmosphere 
which touch the cold glass. It being a 
fact that the air can hold more water in 
a state of vapor as its own temperature 



CELERY. 37 

is raised, and of course must lose it when- 
ever tliat temperature is suddenly reduced. 
Thus there is much more water in the air 
at noon on a hot July day, than on one in 
November when we can scarcely see a 
dozen rods through the thick mist. Rain 
is produced in this manner, by the sudden 
condensation of watery vapor, and dew 
by the contact of warm moisture-laden 
atmosphere with the cold ground. 

In the hot-bed the same law holds 
good. The moisture which we have 
added to the soil is heated and eva- 
porated by the heat above and the heat 
below, and as the glasses of the sash are 
several degrees cooler than itself it is 
forced to deposit in beads, as above 
stated. 



CELERY. 



AIRING THE PLANTS. 



Air should be admitted to the beds 
only in the forenoon ; unless the plants 
need no watering, in which case they 
may be aired in the latter part of the 
day. Many more plants are destroyed by 
giving too much, than by too little air. 
The dass should be shaded bv mats in 
the middle of the day, for much loss is 
caused by a wilting of celery roots. This, 
in fact, is the reason why so many plants 
run to seed after they are set out, and 
there are numbers of gardeners who can 
certify to losses of thousands of dollars 
from this accident alone. My own loss 
has amounted to a verv larsie sum. When 



CELERY. 39 

the plant wilts, and is neglected for one 
or more days. it> sap becomes unhealthy, 
and in extreme cases so dries out that 
the stalk becomes pithy, like the bulb of 
a pithy radish or turnip. If watered it 
may partially revive, but it can never 
quite recover from the check it has re- 
ceived. When transplanted, not having 
strength enough for a reaction, it strikes 
fresh root and shoots up in a desperate 
effort of nature, and is ruined. The 
plants taken from the foot of the hot-bed 
perhaps escape running to seed, but those 
from the middle and upper portions fall 
victims to the maltreatment they have 
received. 

By shading my plants, then, in the mid- 
dle of the day I escape the wilting, and 
still have the needed amount of moisture. 



40 CELERY. 

If I watered them to avoid the wilting, I 
should produce a mildew, and the plants 
would "damp off" at the root. Celery 
needs but little water, and that in the 
form of dew. Hot-beds should be wa- 
tered at the upper part and not at the 
lower, otherwise the whole crop is endan- 
gered. It is easy to know from their 
appearance whether the plants require 
watering, for in such case their leaves are 
of a deeper color, and smaller, than of 
those which do not need it. My plan is 
to water twice a week, and shade the 
beds when the sky is clearest ; say from 
10 A. M. to 4: P. M. 

Gardeners will have observed that in a 
hot-bed, the plants growing in the shade 
of a cross-bar of the sash are invariably 
healthy. They are worth much more 



CELERY. 41 

than the unshaded plants, for they thrive 
better in the field, and I recommend the 
application of this principle to the whole 
sash. I repeat it, it is in vain to hope 
for a sound saleable crop of celery from 
damaged plants. There are multitudes 
of crops of celery that never pay for the 
expense of their production. Some allow 
their plants to stand too thickly, and 
thus get them all tops and no bottoms. 
Others, from keeping their beds too 
damp, lose their crops from mildew ; and 
each of a host of others suffers his espe- 
cial penalty for the violation of some law 
of vegetable growth. 



42 CELERY. 



HOEING THE BEDS. 



This must be done only when the 
leaves are quite dry, or the plants will be 
stricken with rust. Kust I suppose to be 
caused by the formation of an acid in the 
sap, which either directly or indirectly 
starts a process of decomposition in the 
cells, and ultimately, the destruction of 
the plant. 



CELERY. 43 



TRANSPLANTING. 



The removal of plants from the hot- 
bed is an operation which requires great 
care. It is painful to see the manner in 
which it is performed in nine cases out of 
every ten. The delicate rootlets of the 
young plants are torn from their resting 
places as if they were of no value w^hat- 
ever, but rather useless appendages to the 
stem and leaves which might as well as 
not be dispensed with. The bed should 
be well watered an hour before the plants 
are to be removed, for they are thus invi- 
gorated, like the man who lunches before 
starting on a journey, the soil is com- 
pacted about the roots, and we are ena- 



44 CELERY. 

bled to pull out only those of good shape 
and equal size. If the bed be not wa- 
tered, and the plants are dug instead of 
being pulled, we not only get them in 
poorer condition for transplanting, but 
are apt to get a mixture of sizes, which 
gives a veiy variable crop, one which 
does not admit of one system of treat- 
ment being applied to the whole field. If 
tall and short plants be growing together, 
it is easy to see that in banking the 
frame to the required height we should 
smother the latter, and hence much loss 
ensues. It is such an easy matter to have 
a crop of equal size throughout, by sim- 
ply using the precautions which I have 
detailed, that I am prompted to dwell 
thus earnestly upon this special point. 
When the plants are allowed to stand 



CELERY. 45 

too thickly they become worthless when 
they have gained a height of twelve 
inches and are planted out, for the sun 
striking them, their enfeebled constitu- 
tions can not resist its heat, and they 
wilt and die. I have always found that 
the shorter and more " stocky" my plants 
are, the stronger they are in the root, and 
thus the more likely to make vigorous 
stalks and retain their health. 

Celery plants should never be topped 
before transplanting. Leaves are the 
lungs of the plant and can be no more 
dispensed with than can the same 
organs in the animal. When a plant 
is poor and spindling, and its roots 
have been destroyed, it has been a com- 
mon practice to attempt to counter- 
balance these losses by topping the plant. 



46 CELERY. 

As I never set out a poor plant I never 
resort to this make-shift expedient. The 
comparitive merits of the two plans may 
readily be tested by planting one row of 
celery without removing the tops, and 
another with the usual treatment. If the 
superiority of the former practice be not 
made manifest, the result will differ from 
what I have observed on my own farm. 
It has happened to me to raise a poor 
crop more than once after having taken 
every precaution, merely because I topped 
my plants. Experience has taught me 
these practical results, and experience I 
have always thought to be the best 
teacher one can have. It is useless for 
us to see certain results transpiring be- 
fore our eyes if we are not led to discover 
the hidden causes at work to produce 



CELERY. 47 

them. Any fool can see that he is losing 
his crops year after year. The wise man 
learns from his losses how to prevent 
them. 



48 CELERY. 



PREPAKING THE TRENCHES. 



Celery can be raised in almost every 
kind of soil ; but a like treatment can not 
be given to all. Those who fail to raise 
l^aying crops must more generally ascribe 
the result to their careless treatment than 
to the nature of their soil. It is true a 
sandy loam, or a spongy muck are best 
adapted to the celery plant, but with me 
any kind of soil will answer. If I have a 
heavy clay loam I am forced to use extra 
precautions, handling it only when almost 
dry; whereas with a light sandy loam 
like the greater part of my farm, I pay 
but little attention to this matter. 

I make my trenches two feet deep and 



CELERY. 49 

one foot wide. Put in well-rotted cattle 
or hog manure to a depth of six inches, 
and cover it with a like depth of soil 
taken from the side of the trench. The 
two layers are then to be thoroughly mixed, 
and when completed the bottom instead 
of being left flat is to be raked so as to 
make a mound, higher in the middle than 
at the sides. The plants are to be set 
twelve inches asunder. The trenches 
made five feet apart. The objection thus 
mounding the bottom of the trench is that 
when a heavy shower falls we escape a 
disaster which often befalls us under the 
flat system, viz : the smothering of many 
plants by dirt washed from the banks of 
the ditch. Some more hardy, or it may be 
less thickly covered than the rest, may 
struggle througli to the surface, but the 

7 



50 CELERY. 

chances are doubtful. If the plants be 
set at the center of the mound the dirt 
washed in merely fills the gutters at 
either side, and the plants are left un- 
harmed. I have myself lost hundreds of 
thousands of celery plants, from this 
smothei-ing, and I doubt not such has been 
the experience of every other cultivator. 

The trenches should be prepared only 
in clear weather and when the wind is 
either North or West, for under such 
circumstances the soil will possess its 
greatest power of condensation, and the 
safety of the crop be more assured. If, 
however, the ground is plowed when the J 

wind is either South or East this con- 
densing power is materially lessened, for 
the soil and atmosphere will be more alike 
in temperature, and as a natural result 



CELERY. 



51 



the plants not receiving sufficient moisture 
from the air must be watered by hand, 
and will require to be shaded as well. 
This is all a useless labor and expense, 
for celery cultivation should be so managed 
as that no hand watering in the field 
should ever be required. The practice 
besides causing expense is injurious, for it 
compacts the surface of the soil and thus 
destroys its porosity. It makes but little 
difference as to the heat of the day, if the 
celery plants are set out soon after the 
ground is plowed, for the cold overturned 
soil Avill supply abundance of moisture to 
the plants. The old plan is to prepare 
the trenches in dry weather, and im- 
mediately after a rain-fall to set all 
hands to work setting the plants. This 
was formerly my own practice, but sad 



52 CELERY. 

experience has taught me better; for 
while it is true I caused my plants to take 
fresh root, I did enough harm to the soil 
to almost counterbalance the profits. By 
testing the two ways in conjunction I 
found that the plants set out on a dry day 
were always healthy and green, while 
those set after a shower became compara- 
tively yellow or brownish in hue. 



CELERY. 53 



HOEING. 

By tlie usual practice a crop of celery 
is hoed early in the morning without 
regard to the state of the soil as regards 
moisture, and with no reference to the 
direction of the wind at the time. But 
what is the penalty of such practice ? That 
which I suffered was the loss of thousands 
of heads of celery ; and such doubtless is 
the experience of others. Not suspecting 
the real cause of my failures I tried at 
great cost every experiment which I could 
devise, and at last was rewarded by dis- 
covering how to ensure a healthy crop. 
Now I never hoe my celery when either 
the leaves are wet or the soil is damp, 



54 CELERY. 

I wait for a dry soil and a North or West 
wind. Thus the plant is supplied with 
moisture by the process of condensation, 
and is not, as by the usual practice rusted 
from the disturbance of a moist ground. 

Celery is hoed for the first time with 
two objects in view ; to furnish moisture 
to the crop, and to cover the roots with 
soil so as to prevent them from being 
burnt or " scalded" by the sun. When a 
plant becomes sun-burnt it rusts, the 
stalks crack cross wise, the tubes which 
convey the sap break asunder, and the 
celery becomes bitter to the taste. This 
unfortunate result is clearly the conse- 
quence of neglect, and may arise from 
ignorance or carelessness. 

The first covering should be of not more 
than three inches of soil over the roots 



^ 




i>r^3 



DISEASED CELERY PLAET 



CELERY. 55 

near the surface which put out laterally 
and serve as feeders to the plant. Those 
which strike downward supply the plant 
with moisture, an ofitice which is also per- 
formed by the leaves at night, for they 
condense moisture from the atmosphere 
under favorable conditions. In hoeing 
we must be cautious not to get dirt into 
the heart of the plants, else they will be 
destroyed as surely as if overtaken by a 
flood. The heart of the celery plant must 
be allowed when young to have an 
abundance of air ; many plants are lost 
from being banked, when they should only 
be hoed about to kill the weeds, and by 
stirring the soil furnish moisture. This 
stirring is of the utmost importance in 
dry weather, for if the plants are once 
suffered to w^ilt there is danger of losing 



56 CELERY. 

the whole crop. Deprived of its regular 
nutriment by being deprived of moisture 
in suitable condition, the stalks of celery 
become bitter and consequently unhealthy. 
For this reason there is but little sweet 
celery to be found in market in Summer, 
whereas if only proper precautions were 
used an abundant supply could be had 
throughout the entire season. So little 
indeed have gardeners been able to grow 
a crop of good quality for Summer use 
that a popular superstition has arisen 
that celeiy is not fit to eat before the first 
frost. There is not a particle of truth in 
this assertion, as the Summer guests of 
the Delavan House can abundantly tes- 
tify. It has resulted from the fact, that 
in the fall months we have no drouth, and 
the crop once safely past the Summer and 



CELERY. 57 

left to shift for itself a healthy growth is 
more possible. My plants are taken care 
of during the Summer heats, when they 
need attention most, and not being suffered 
to wilt, I am rewarded by a good healthy 
crop. Celery must be planted in a cool 
and rather damj) place, but it can not 
withstand any excess of wet, and should 
never be planted where water would stand 
in a ditch dug to a depth of four feet. 



58 CELERY. 



BANKING. 



This, by tlie majority of gardeners, is 
done every few days. Tliey commence to 
bank up when the i)lants have only 
three or four stalks, which is a fatal mis- 
take. By their kindness to the plant 
they are apt to ruin it, and instead of 
helping, hinder its growth. So much for 
not understanding the habits of the plant. 
Beside, there is no need of all this labor 
and expense, and hence it is so much 
sheer waste of capital. My rule is to 
first aim at getting a large root, and then 
wait for the plant to get ten stalks, the 



CELERY. 59 

tallest eighteen inches in height. By get- 
ting a large root the plant gives me larger 
stalks, and three or four at a time ; 
whereas, by the old plan of hilling, this 
hardy growth is prevented, but one stalk 
is produced at a time, and that a small 
one. Another reason for deferring the 
first banking up until the ten long stalks 
are put forth, is, that the outer ones form 
around the heart a complete curb, or 
fence, against the access of soil, which 
would produce rust and make my croj) 
like that of a thousand other gardeners. 
Besides, I give the plant as much greater 
ability to collect moisture for its use as 
ten stalks are a greater number than 
three or four, and by so much diminish 
the liability to turn bitter. I can not 
urge too strongly this having a number 



60 CELERY. 

of outer stalks to form a curb for the pro- 
tection of the heart, for it is impossible to 
prevent rust if dirt once enters, and by 
my plan the i)rotection is effectual, the 
outer stalks alone being injured by the 
soil. These are always to be removed 
before placing the vegetable upon the 
dinner-table. 

It is currently believed that celery 
stalks can be blanched by banking after 
they have become green, and to save all 
these green stalks, gardeners commence to 
bank up when barely a single stalk has 
grown, and continue it from time to 
time at short intervals. By so doing they 
do nothing to keep the dirt from the 
heart, leaving its preservation to the 
merest chance. 

I aim to get not only large tops and 



t 




\l 



CELERY. 61 

abundance of stalks, but a good stout bot- 
tom. Those who pursue the old method 
get a small root, and as a natural conse- 
quence, small, feeble stalks. The result 
which I have at last obtained is, to raise 
celery which does not rust, is neither 
pithy nor stringy, and to have an average 
crop of large heads, the stalks of which 
will be as white and clean as a sperm 
candle. Moreover, I have to expend but 
half the labor and money on the crop that 
I formerly did, and thus make it a very 
profitable business. Formerly the losses 
were so great that the crop seldom paid 
for raising, for if, perchance, I succeeded 
in getting a fair crop, I lost it all after it 
was harvested, from ignorance of the 
method for j3reserving it from rotting. I 



62 CELERY. 

would have every gardener study the na- 
ture of the phmt for himself, and not rely 
wholly on what I or any other man may 
say; for with ever so good a hand-book, 
the cultivator will never get the mastery 
over the crop so as to handle it with a cer- 
tainty of profit, unless he study it in con- 
nexion with his own practical experience. 
Celery is absolutely one of the easiest 
vegetables to raise, and the expense of its 
production should almost never exceed 
one cent per head. 

My celery is banked twice only. The 
first tin.e is, as I said before, when it has 
grown to a height of eighteen inches, and 
I then bank up to the first outside leaf, 
measuring from the root upward. This 
leaf is the mark to work by, for if dirt be 



CELERY. 63 

put above this point the celery is apt to 
decay at the heart, as the loss of full half 
a crop has often taught to its cultivators. 
Before banking, the soil between the rows 
should either be cultivated or hand -hoed, 
to destroy any weeds that may be grow- 
ing. This should only be done on a clear 
day, for otherwise the soil is apt to be too 
damp, and if any of it comes in contact 
with the heart will produce decay. This 
decay commences at the heart leaves, and 
may be known by their appearing as if 
dipped in dirty water. From the leaves it 
extends downward as far as the root, and 
the loss of the whole plant ensues. 

The second banking is done when the 
heart has grown up even with the outside 
leaves, and should then be done so that 
the whole plant is banked to a height of 



64: CELERY. 

two feet. As soon after this as the heart 
has grown up above the outer leaves the 
celery will be ready for the table; the 
w^hole period from the first banking being 
but four weeks in all. By the old plan it 
requires three months to get it three feet 
high, and for this reason it becomes tough 
and stringy, sometimes pithy and rusty, 
and in any case unmarketable. By my 
plan all rust, pith, stringiness, and tough- 
ness is escaped, and the plant is made 
sweet, crisp, tender, and i)alatable. 

I observe the rule of never hilling 
celery until about four weeks before it is 
required for the table, and thus am ena- 
bled to blanch it only as needed for use. 
If I need a thousand heads a day through 
October, I hill that number each day 
throughout Julv, and so with other 



CELERY. ()5 

montlis. If an excessive quantity beyond 
what you need for consumption is 
blanched, it is liable to spoil. 



66 CELERY. 



DIGGING THE CROP. 



This operation, wliicli should be per- 
formed with great care, is too often so 
managed as to spoil the crop produced 
with the greatest care. If dug up and 
suffered to lie exposed to the sun, it wilts 
and becomes green and pithy. It is also 
liable to become as rank and strong fla- 
vored in the stalk as in the leaves. For 
this reason, celery after being dug, should 
be exposed to the light as little as possi- 
ble, for every hour of unnecessary expo- 
sure will reduce its quality in a material 
degree. 



CELERY. 67 



PREPARING FOR USE. 



When dressed for the table, care should 
be taken to have the water perfectly 
clean, for otherwise the celery will be 
stained, and can never be made to look 
as well afterward. After the celery is all 
washed and bunched, it should be j^laced 
in a tight barrel, standing upright and 
on its roots. Then pour in water to the 
depth of two inches, which will effectually 
prevent it from wilting or becoming pithy. 
In this state it will grow as if still in the 
ground. The mouth of the barrel should 
be covered with a cloth thick enough to 
exclude the light, and the barrel should 



68 CELERY. 

be set in a cool place until the celery is 
wanted for use. These simple practical 
directions are but little ol)served, and 
herein we have the reason for our seeing 
so much inferior celery in the public mar- 
kets. When celery is purchased in market 
for family use, it should be sent home 
wrapped in a cloth, or thick paper, and 
at once put in a cool place, or into cold 
water, where it should remain until pre- 
pared for dinner. To prepare it, remove 
all the outside stalks which are not good 
to eat, and so trim the root that the outer 
portion, or corky bark, is all removed. 
Then cut the head in such a way that 
each stalk shall be attached to a portion 
of root, lor thus each will be furnished 
with a portion of sap until eaten. Celery 
should not be put on the table until a few 



CELERY. 69 

minutes before it is to be used. By this 
means the stalks will retain all that deli- 
cate flavor which they receive from the 
root. 



WINTER CELERY. 



WINTEK CELERY. 



PREPARING THE GROUND. 

The land chosen for Fall or Winter 
celery should if possible be a sandy loam, 
the location warm but with a cool bottom, 
and if underdrained so much the better. 
It will be understood from what has pre- 
ceded that standing water at the root of 
celery plants is very injurious, and the 
question as to the necessity or profit of 
underdraining, naturally suggests itself. 
If a man possesses a soil which is un- 
derlaid by an open gravelly bottom, it 
10 



74 CELERY. 

is i^robable that his drainage would be 
naturally perfect, and he would be foolish 
to lay out capital in underdraining. My 
own farm is a light sandy loam and so 
well drained naturally that I can work it 
at almost any time. But on wet clays, or 
heavy clay loams the celery grower is 
forced to drain, or risk the loss of his 
crop. Supposing this matter attended 
to: 

The ground should be prepared in the 
Fall by application of a good coat of cat- 
tle or hog manure, plowed or dug under. 
The land should be laid up in beds about 
eight feet wide witli deej) water furrows, 
that it may be worked earlier in Spring. 
As soon as the frost is out of the ground 
and the ground has dried, it should be 
plowed. A clear day should be chosen, 



CELERY. 75 

and the ground should be laid out in 
beds eight feet wide, and as long as 
required. 



76 CELERY. 



SOWING AND HOEING. 



To make the drills, take a board four 
inches wide and ten feet long (the extra 
two feet beyond the width of the bed 
being intended to serve as handles), and 
two men, at opposite sides of the bed, 
press the board edgewise into the ground 
to the depth of an inch. The edge of the 
board is not to be made sharp. The 
drills are to be made a foot apart. Cover 
the seed as fast as sown, and when the 
whole bed is finished give it a light roll- 
ing. By so doing the plants will come 
up alike, as heretofore described. The 
sprouts will come above ground in about 
fourteen days. At the first hoeing thin 



CELERY. 77 

the plants so that they will stand at about 
half an inch apart. The greatest care 
must be taken not to hoe the crop while 
the dew is on, for otherwise it will be 
liable to be stricken with rust. These 
plants will be ready for setting out in 
June or early July. They should be hoed 
only in case of weeds, or if they require 
water, and then it should only be done 
when the wind is Northerly or Westerly. 
The trenches for Winter celery are to be 
made as for the Summer crop. All 
celery in the Fall that has not been 
banked when the first heavy frost ap- 
pears, should be so treated at once to 
prevent the frost from destroying it, as 
the soil is too warm to admit of its being 
transplanted for winter use. 

Care should be used against burying 



78 CELERY. 

celery too soon, else it will strike fresh 
root and get ready for market before it is 
wanted. 



CELERY. 79 



HOW AND WHERE TO BURT. 



The spot chosen for burying the winter 
celery must be the coldest on the farm. 
The North side of a hill, where the soil is 
perfectly drained, is best. Whenever pos- 
sible, the cultivator should manage to 
give to his ground a slope of one foot in 
four, the better to ensure perfect drain- 
age, and to give an equal Northern ex- 
posure to his buried crop. A reference to 
fig. 4 will explain the appearance of the 
hill side when so graded. Stretch a gar- 
den line from North to South, and dig 
the trench on the East side of it, two feet 
deep and one foot wide, throwing the dirt 
to the West side. This will raise the 



80 CELERY. 

ground a foot higher, and make the whole 
height from the bottom of the trench 
three feet. Level the . top of the bank, 
and cut it down perpend icuhxrly. The 
celery for these trenches should not be 
dug unless the leaves are perfectly dry. 
The dirt should be left on the roots as 
much as possible, and the heads are to be 
laid in a row to dry those leaves that 
were in the soil ; but be careful not to 
expose them so long that they will com- 
mence to wilt. When they have dried 
enough carry them to the trench, and 
taking one head at a time, set it against 
the perpendicular side of the trench, roots 
downward, so that the tops of the leaves 
will be two inches higher than the top of 
the bank. Take the earth from the East- 
erly side, and tread the first six inches 



CELERY. 81 

about tlie roots to set tliem firmly and 
encourage the putting forth of new roots. 
The rest of the way up the stalk the soil 
should be laid in loosely, and not pressed 
tight against the celery. If some of the 
heads are only a foot or eighteen inches 
high they must be so mixed in and over- 
lapped by the adjoining heads that they 
will be protected from smothering when 
the dirt is thrown in. When the trench 
is all filled with celery, and the lower six 
inches of soil are packed against the roots, 
the rest of the dirt may be banked in on 
the East side to within two inches of the 
top of- the plants, as on the other side. 
Care must be taken in banking that none 
of the stalks are bent out of the per- 
pendicular. 

11 



82 CELERY. 

The next trench is to be made not 
nearer than a foot from the first. The 
ground is to be leveled, the line stretched, 
and the trench made as before. The 
foot-wide space between trenches is 
needed to keep each row of celery cool. 
In light soil, such as mine, the second 
trench must bo made only as fast as the 
celery can be buried, else the bank will 
cave in. I keep on in this way until I 
have six trenches of celery, and this bed I 
make the planting for first use. 

Usually, the warmest place is chosen 
for the celery pits instead of the coldest. 
By this sad mistake I have lost thousands 
of heads, for as soon as a thaw came, the 
celery would start to grow, and ripening 
before needed for use, decayed. It is 



CELERY. 



83 



easy to make it grow, but hard to check 
it if once started. Whereas, on the 
North side of a hill I can control its 
growth to my liking, and still protect it 
against freezing and thawing by a proper 



covering. 



There are three errors into which celery- 
growers fall. First : digging it up and 
burying it with the leaves damp, thus 
causing mildew, decay, and death. Se- 
cond : knocking the dirt from the roots, 
and thus leaving them to wilt and become 
pithy, while the leaves are drying; the 
consequence of which is that when put 
into trench the stalks become pithy also, 
before the enfeebled root has a chance to 
strike fresh rootlets to supply them with 
sap. Third : burying their Winter celery 
in damp ground, where there is no under 



84 CELERY. 

drain ; in which case the roots become 
saturated with water, vegetation ceases, 
and the roots become black and decay. 



CELERY. 85 



COVERING FOR WINTER. 



The beds being all filled prepare the 
covering, which may be either rye, or 
buckwheat, straw. If the former be used 
it should be well broken up to prevent it 
from lying smooth on the bed — a most 
important point. This covering may be 
put on the bed which is to be fij'st used, 
when the ground has frozen three inches ; 
on the second when frozen four inches; 
on the third when six inches ; on the 
fifth eight inches ; and on the last when 
frozen twelve inches. The first bed is 
frozen three inches only that it may be 
ready for market in four weeks from the 



86 CELERY. 

time of burying, and the other depths will 
ripen a regular succession of beds as 
wanted one after another. 

The covering is put on for two reasons : 
to keep out the frost; and to keep in 
what we have already suffered to enter 
for our own purj^oses. For this reason, if 
I had placed my bed in a warm situation, 
the ground not freezing there as soon as it 
does on the North side of a hill, the celery 
would have taken fresh root, and have 
grown before it could have been checked. 
My readers cannot fail to see the import- 
ance of controlling the maturity of celery 
so as to make it accommodate itself to 
their convenience, a result which is quite 
within their power if the frost be allowed 
to enter in turn to the several depths 
above mentioned. Since adopting this 



CELERY. 87 

practice I find no trouble in having celery 
as white and perfect in January as in 
April ; whereas when if all my beds were 
covered at the same time as the first, 
that is when the frost had entered but 
three inches, I should find in Spring that 
the bed to be last used would have either 
all run to seed or decayed. 

The covering of straw is to be two feet 
thick, and increased as the weather grows 
colder. If there should chance to be a 
fall of snow that must be covered also, 
to prevent its melting. By so covering it 
a solid body of ice will be formed, and 
the protection of your celery be increased. 

These Winter beds are often covered 
with a layer of fresh horse manure, which 
is a practice that can not be too strongly 
condemned. For, as soon as a thaw sets 



88 CELERY. 

in the strength of the dung, comprising 
the soluble and most powerful portions, 
leaches downward, stains the celery, and 
creates a sort of brown rust which mars 
the beauty of the plant, and of course 
greatly impairs its flavor. In a stroll 
through the New York markets, a few 
days since, I saw quantities of celery 
exposed for sale, which had undoubtedly 
been thus injured. This plan of covering 
with horse-dung has arisen from the same 
fallacious idea as the choice of a Southern 
aspect for the Winter beds, and is almost 
as productive of loss to the gardener. 
Besides which it forces unsuspecting 
purchasers to eat in their ignorance food 
flavored in a manner that would and 
should create absolute nausea, if the truth 
were known. If the use of this sub- 



CELERY. 89 

stance as a covering were at all necessary 
I should touch but lightly upon it, but 
as it most emphatically is not, I protest 
against it as a disgusting imposition 
upon the consumer, as well as a serious 
loss to the producer himself. No man 
would be so insane as to bury his Winter 
potatoes or turnips in this substance, 
under the plea that his cellar was not 
frost-proof. Why then should he ''pro- 
tect" celery, a vegetable of much more 
delicate flavor and texture than either, 
by placing above it, a thick layer of 
manure, which contains a large amount 
of substance ready to be washed down- 
ward by the first rain ! 



32 



90 CELERY. 



DIGGING FOR USE. 



This can be done on any clay, no mat- 
ter how cold the air may be. Cave must 
be taken, however, to place it in a blanket 
as it is dug to prevent its freezing ; for if 
once frozen it can never be restored to 
soundness again. This precaution is sel- 
dom taken, and the natural consequence 
is much damaged celery. It does not 
need that I should again describe the 
process of washing and preparing celery 
for the table; but I wish to say a few 
words in rep:ard to sending it home from 



CELERY. 91 

market, and my city readers will do well 
to note them. 

It is frequently the case that although 
one may select the very finest of bunches 
in market, they become spoilt before the 
purchaser is ready to eat them. This 
results from either being too much ex- 
posed to the light, or from being frozen. 
Of course it will be understood that these 
two evils should be guarded against, and 
the celery, instead of being hung up at 
the stands of the marketmen, and sent to 
the purchaser quite unprotected, should 
be covered with a thick damp cloth, both 
in the market and when being sent home. 
How it should be treated after reaching 
there I have already described. 

Thus, in detail, have I described the 



92 CELERY. 

treatment of this most profitable croj:), as 
practiced by myself, after many years of 
practical experiment. Of the importance 
of the suggestions herein contained some 
idea can be had, when we consider that 
there are sold in the City of New York 
alone, several millions of bunches every 
year, and its consumption is constantly 
on the increase. That it has, in some 
measure, been regarded as an article of 
luxury and beyond the reach of the poor, 
is simply due to the uncertainty which 
has attended its cultivation. I do not 
doubt, in fact I know from personal expe- 
rience, that sometimes, Avith even the 
highest market prices, celery culture has 
not paid its bare expenses. This is an 
entirely unnecessary state of things, and 
I confidently assert that if gardeners will 



CELERY. 93 

fairly follow the directions laid down in 
this unpretentious little treatise, they 
will find celery fully as certain a crop as 
turnips or potatoes, and more i3rofitable 
than either. 



OTHER HAND-BOOKS. 



OTHER HAND-BOOKS. 



I propose to publish, at intervals, as my 
onerous engagements may permit, Hand- 
Books on other culinary Vegetables, each 
of which will contain facts of value, the 
result of my own experience. Those 
which I now have in view are treatises 
on: 

Potatoes. 

How to raise a healthy Potato cro}) without 

ro^.— The three different kinds of rot, 

attacking the root and stalk shall be 

described, and my mode of avoiding them 
13 



98 OTHER HAND-BOOKS. 

be given. I will describe the mode of 
keeping Potatoes through the Winter 
without sprouting, and without impair- 
ing their tiaAor. Also, where and how to 
plant them ; how much and what manure 
they need ; whether and when to use, cut 
or whole seed ; how many eyes should be 
left on a set; and other particulars. 

Corn. 

How to raise a large croj) of Siveet, Yellow, 
or other kind of Corn every year, without 
havinp; it stricken with rust or anv other 
disease ; how and when to plow ; to 
plant so as to make the plants come up 
evenly ; to manure ; to hoe for the first 
time ; to cultivate ; to hill ; to supply 
the crop with moisture in severe drouths 
without hand watering; to cure so as to 



OTHER IIAXD-BOOKS. 99 

best ensure ripening; and to keep the 
stalks throughout Winter. 

Cauliflowers. 
How to raise Cauliflowers so that they 
will all head ; how to prevent their 
running to seed; to preserve the root 
against maggots ; to prevent clump-foot ; 
and how to keep them through the Winter 
without rotting. 

Cabbage. 

Hoiv to raise any kind of Cabbage, in 
hot-beds or the field, without having 
them "damp-off" or become clump-footed; 
how to prevent injury from maggots, lice, 
or other insects ; to prepare the soil; 
manure; cultivate, harvest, and preserve 
the crop. 



100 other hand-books. 

Turnips. 
HoiD to raise Early Turnips, perfectly 
clear, and free from maggots. The soil, 
culture, and treatment to give them, and 
how to best keep them over Winter. 



In like manner I propose to treat the 
Carrot, Beet, Parsnip, Radish, Onion, 
Cucumber, Melon, Squash, and the other 
Vegetables in turn. 



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